


Precious Cargo

by nonky



Series: Precious [2]
Category: Battlestar Galactica (2003)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-04
Updated: 2019-11-04
Packaged: 2021-01-22 13:09:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,123
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21302609
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nonky/pseuds/nonky
Summary: Pregnant Starbuck was surprisingly less of a nightmare than anyone imagined. She'd learned to either take it all out on her spouse or vent in kinder ways. Lee glowed with her, and Kara dedicated herself to having a healthy baby. Any paranoia needed kid glove treatment, but Cottle figured they'd had a big scare for two people who made their living trying to be shot out of the sky.
Relationships: Lee "Apollo" Adama/Kara "Starbuck" Thrace
Series: Precious [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1535732
Comments: 6
Kudos: 40





	Precious Cargo

Fleet Doctor Sherman Cottle had seen a lot of patients, all of them important. Some he thought of fondly and some were bitter failures he'd done his best to take a lesson from losing. Some of the younger officers called him Gramps behind his back, and he humoured it because none of them likely had any family alive. 

Half the job was making people feel there was hope they'd recover. Pain was temporary, injury could be repaired, and even a limb or an eye lost could be managed with some ingenuity and help. 

Of his recurring patients, the pilots were high on the list. The Old Man liked to downplay his favouritism - rightfully so - but the pilots kept everyone alive. The war was primarily fought in the air. They didn't get special treatment, but they often got it first with all other conditions equal. 

Captain Lee Adama was luckily a healthy type, and Lieutenant Kara Thrace was lucky as all the hells. Their recent haunting of his Medbay came a precipitous two years after he'd had to do an emergency D and C after a miscarriage. The two pilots had snuck around and gotten caught by Thrace's ovulation. She'd hidden the pregnancy for a few weeks, and only accepted it for reality when it was too late to help her. 

These two were Commander Adama's best and his own. They were the fleet's golden children having their own golden child, albeit in the stupidest timing he'd ever witnessed from two people who lived on skilled flying. 

Cottle wasn't certain he could have done anything, but he'd told them what was right to tell any young pair of officers who were grieving a baby they'd never hold. He rhymed off statistics about how common it was to conceive but not bring a pregnancy to term. He'd told Kara she was still as able to be a mother as before, and there wasn't anyone to blame. He'd refrained from bitching at them about being too lazy to get a simple shot that would have spared them the whole ordeal. 

Their devastation was obvious, and the situation had been too urgent to effectively guard patient privacy. Lee was glued to Kara's bedside for two days, and afterwards they continued on as if the experience had taken the place of vows. The entire ship accepted they were a couple and allowed it. Cottle had set a standing appointment for their contraceptive boosters, and didn't let them miss by a day.

He didn't want to see Adama's son looking like he'd die of heartbreak ever again, and Lee had given every sign of bleeding internally with an excess of love. By some miracle, both pilots blundered through numerous battles with minor damage. He saw them rarely for preventative measures. Then they marched into a booster appointment with a note from the Commander - might as well have been signed 'Lee's Dad' - that they had permission to forgo birth control to have a baby.

Cottle had rolled his eyes, filed the letter, and mentally prepared for seeing a lot of them lingering nervously around his ward. Home pregnancy tests were an expensive and rare item. He would have to confirm the result, provide prenatal care, and deliver the baby. 

The harder part turned out to be watching them wait. He coached patience as Kara's body adjusted to being off medication. He processed tests in another room while they sat holding hands and whispering comfort. He stomped out their hopes a few times, and finally got to watch them panic happily when he gave his signature nod. 

Pregnant Starbuck was surprisingly less of a nightmare than anyone imagined. She'd learned to either take it all out on her spouse or vent in kinder ways. Lee glowed with her, and Kara dedicated herself to having a healthy baby. Any paranoia needed kid glove treatment, but Cottle figured they'd had a big scare for two people who made their living trying to be shot out of the sky. 

Naturally, labour started in the middle of the night. He'd been treated to the singular chaos of both Lee and Kara in their most melodramatic display to date. Cottle had to order Lee to stop clinging to her so he could do an examination. The pilots had made the whole thing terribly awkward by tearfully eyefrakking one another as he checked her progress. 

"Gods, this is terrible," he'd said idly. He wouldn't light up a cigarette in there, but he was definitely going to smoke one in the hallway. 

Lee tensed and Kara clutched her belly with a trembling pout. Cottle sighed with the gravity of a planet. Obviously, they would go right to horrors and need a nurse clucking attendance on their every anxiety. 

"Is there something wrong? Do you need to do surgery," Kara asked. She was pale, and they were plastered together once more. Lee hugged her around the shoulders and kissed the top of her head compulsively.

"Nothing is wrong, but you both know labour takes hours if not days. So you're going to have to spare me from the worst of your syrupy PDAs," he told them. "I'm going to go back to bed for a while, and a nurse will wake me if I'm needed."

His cigarette break turned into a walk up to let the Commander know his grandchild was imminent. Cottle convinced the man to wait a few hours before arriving at bedside. By his reckoning, Kara was going to be in for a marathon. The combined genetic stubbornness of her child might break records if it could be accurately tested with blood. 

He stopped for some food, trusting his nurses to manage the fractious couple until his return. Cottle lingered over his coffee, never the optimist he'd be getting back to bed at all.

To his eternal exasperation, Kara's was one of the fastest labours in recent memory. Having been coached to rest and try to remain calm, her water broke two minutes into her nap, she moved directly into nonstop contractions, and Lee caught the baby with barely a second to spare exactly when the nurses actually had another patient in need. 

The cute little frakker was a glorious, blue-eyed wonder, who took an instant distaste to doctors and medical procedures. In her most obnoxious move he'd ever witnessed, Kara waited until Bill arrived to announce her son's name. 

"William Sherman Adama," she said, winking at a hovering nurse. "Make sure you spell it right."

Lords of Kobol if Cottle didn't have to go to his office for a quick weep about it, once Lee and Bill gave him excessively long handshakes. He was starting to worry Kara might be winning their friendly little quarrel.


End file.
